TCA: ‘Girls’ Countenances No Questions About Lena Dunham Nudity

“I don’t get the purpose of all the nudity – particularly by you,” some guy said to Lena Dunham at the start of the Q&A for her HBO comedy series Girls. It went downhill from there. The Random Guy Who Covers TV said he gets the point of all the nudity on HBO’s Game of Thrones, explaining it’s an attempt to “be salacious and titillate people.”

But Dunham’s nudity baffles him. “It’s a realistic expression of what it’s like to be alive,” she said. “I totally get it if you’re not into me. That’s your problem.”

Exec producer Judd Apatow jumped in with a question addressed to Random Guy: “Do you have a girlfriend? Does she like you?” he sneered, as though it was a given nobody could. Apatow suggested the guy tell his girlfriend exactly how he’d asked the question at the Girls Q&A and “let me know how it goes tonight.” Apatow apparently lives in that alternate universe in which everyone loves Girls.

Another critic asked Dunham if she likes the characters she’s written on the show. We assumed he was talking about the characters Dunham has created for Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams, and Zosia Mamet. “Yeah, I love them. I love writing them,” she responded. Apatow, having apparently shot his wad with Random Nudity Question Guy, did not have any snappy comeback to add.

“I guess I’m wondering if these are people you’d be friends with,” the critic continued, noting Dunham puts her show’s leads into “terrible situations” and has them not behaving well. Some discussion about the Girls characters’ bad behavior later, Dunham had had enough and shot back, “You seem to like Walter White.”

Apatow liked that thread and suggested the critics in the room who don’t like the characters in Girls but did like the characters in Breaking Bad are made uncomfortable by Girls because it’s so true to life — whereas they could never see themselves selling meth in the desert, so Breaking Bad did not make them uncomfortable. Or something like that.

They moved on to The Cast Whiteness Question. Nothing new there — just revisiting old responses to the issue, though Dunham hinted tantalizingly that there might be room to address the situation in the upcoming Season 3, which premieres Sunday.

“I’m in such a rage spiral about that guy!” Girls exec producer Jenni Konner broke out when someone began to ask a confusing question about show flexibility. “Looking at him, I’m going into such a rage! Accusing a woman of showing her body so much! It just makes me sort of sick.” She demanded Random Nudity Question Guy tell her which publication had sent him.

“We don’t expect that from The New York Times,” Apatow joked. “I don’t expect that from Us Weekly,” Konner added. The critic from Us Weekly, who was in the room and had not asked the question, took exception with her accusation, insisting he was pro-Dunham-nudity on Girls. Then, someone got the bright idea of comparing the women of Girls to the women of The Golden Girls, which seemed to calm everyone down.